A Pain In The Ass

You know how you can go back and watch Steve Martin movies from the 70s, and understand on an intellectual level that it's supposed to be funny while not actually laughing at all? Well, this was basically the same thing, only released in the 21st century.

Apparently it's a remake of a very old script that the director had written but not gotten to direct at the time. So the datedness makes sense. It doesn't make it any funnier, though. What does save the film to some extent is a pretty strong performance by all the main characters. With lesser acting this film would have been intolerable. As it is, there are a few chuckles here, but nothing terribly clever.